First round of the Subway Series is in the books and for Mets fans, it didn't go the way they wanted. The Yankees took advantage of sub-par Mets pitching and Mets defense the entire series and walked away with the three game sweep of the weekend. The excitement started Friday night, and for the Yankees it turned out to be a homer happy night in the Bronx.
The Yankees bats lit up Mets starter Johan Santana like a cheap Cigar, blasting four homers of him in five innings. Robinson Cano was responsible for for two of the blasts, both two run shots. The first blast came in the 2nd inning and went 408 feet, while the 2nd two run shot came an inning later in the 3rd and went 392 feet. Both homers were hit to right field. That gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead, But they weren't done there. After Cano hit his second of the game, Nick Swisher hit a 373 foot bomb to left field giving the Yanks a 5-0 lead. Andrew Jones capped off the homer happy 3rd inning by hitting a 408 foot bomb to left to make it a 6-0 Yankees lead and capping off back-to-back-to-back jacks by the Bronx Bombers.
So Johan was done after 5 innings allowing the 4 home runs and allowing a total of 7 hits and 6 earned runs while striking out five. The Yankees weren't done scoring however, as they added three more runs in the 7th thanks to RBI hits from Alex Rodrigues, Nick Swisher and Andrew Jones. The Mets were able to scratch out a run in the 9th off Ryota Igarashi thanks to a Lucas Duda RBI Double but by that point the game was already out of reach. Hiroki Kuroda got the win for the Yankees going seven innings and allowing one hit while striking out seven.
Game Two of the series was a nail bitter and again the long ball would prove to be the difference in this game.Dillon Gee was on the mound for the Mets and Phil Hughes was going for the Yankees. Thanks to Alex Rodrigues RBI single in the bottom of the first the Yankees took a 1-0 lead. The offense for both teams would then go quite until an unlikely candidate tied the game for the mets. Light hitting shortstop Omar Quintanilla connected for his first homer of the season, a 354 foot shot to right. It was good enough to tie the ball game. Then, as the 6th inning rolled around still tied at one, David Wright connected for his 8th homer of the year, traveling 439 feet to dead center field, giving the Mets a 2-1 lead. That lead would not last however, as Mark Teixeira connected for a 2-run bomb that traveled about 362 feet to the short porch in right field to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. The scoring would be capped off for the Yankees thanks to a Curtis Granderson homer to right that went about 397 feet, to seal a 4-2 win for the Yankees. Phil Hughes went 6 and 1/3 innings for the Bombers, allowing six hits and two earned runs on the two Mets dinngers. Yankees relievers Boone Logan, Cory Wade, Clay Rapada, and closer Rafael Soriano were able to shut the door. Soriano picked up his 9th save of the season. As for the Mets Dillon Gee took the loss dropping his record to 4-4. Gee went seven innings allowing 5 hits and 3 runs while striking out 5.
Sunday would turn out to be the most exciting game of the entire series. It was set to be an OK pitching matchup between Andy Pettite and Jonathan Niese. First inning came and went quickly and quietly. The 2nd inning however is where things got going, and to the surprise of many it was the Mets jumping out to the lead thanks to an RBi single from Vinny Rottino and a two run double from Jordany Valdespin. the hit from Valdespin was a nice relief as he made a couple of defensive mistakes in the opening game of the series, so he was having a tough go of it. But after two innings of play the Mets had a 3-0 lead. Pettite was taken out after a catching a combacker with his bare hand in the 6th, although he was able to finish the 6th inning, he was in discomfort so he was taken out after six good innings. As most mets fans know the team has problems putting games away late due to either poor relief pitching or poor defense. In this case it was the pitching that let the team down. Jonathan Niese had been crusing along until the start of the 7th when he threw his final pitch of the afternoon, a two run homer to catcher Russel Martin, which was a 348 foot shot to right field. The Mets came out of the 7th without allowing another run. The 8th inning is where things fell apart. Bobby Parnell came in to pitch the 8th for Niese and didn't do what he was supposed to. He gave up the lead after surrendering RBI hits to Alex Rodrigues and Mark Teixeira. The Mets had to then throw out there Byrdak and Rouch to get out of the 8th. It didn't matter as the team had blown a 3-0 lead and it was 4-3 Yankees going into the 9th.
Soriano came out to pitch the 9th for the Yankees and wasn't able to make the lead stand up as he gave up doubles to Lucas Duda and Ike Davis to tie the game up at four going into the bottom of the 9th. Jon Rauch came back out to pitch for the Mets and the first man he faces is Russel Martin, who already hit a two run homer earlier in the ball game. Martin didn't waste much time winning the game as he found a pitch he liked and deposited that pitch 358 feet into the left field seats to win the game in walk off fashion for the Yankees 5-4.
What got to me in this series, as a Mets fan, was just how truly crappy the Mets bullpen, and on occasion their defense, can really be. I knew going into the offseason there were some holes that had to be filled and GM Sandy Alderson had done an OK job trying to fill those holes in the pen, with signing guys like Rouch and Frank Fransisco. But there were in all honesty too many glaring problems facing the mets in that there is not that great a supporting cast in the rotation behind Johan and Dickey. Granted the starting rotation has been able to hold its own, its the rest of the pen that hasn't been able to make it stand up and its making me sick as a fan. There are too many glaring holes in this mets team to really see them as contenders in the NL East, which is one of the toughest divisions in all of baseball to be playing in. Some Mets fans actually felt at the start of the season like they had a playoff bound team on the field in Queens. After what I saw this past weekend in the Bronx, its gonna be really tough to pull this out.I'll give the club credit they have shown flashes, but unless guys like Ike Davis and Jason Bay start finding their bats again, and the defense and bullpen staff start getting better, sorry to say it but it will be another failed year of missing the playoffs in Queens.
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